Caught in the Whirlpool
Part VII
Just as the sun was starting to rise, Goro Kurohi finished checking over his books in his cluttered little office and then pulled out his other set of books. He was about halfway through his second set of ledgers when he was work was interrupted. A nervous, lanky younger man slipped inside and closed the door behind him and squirmed as he waited for acknowledgement. While Goro ignored him, the newcomer eyed a menacing stone gargoyle crouched in the corner of the office.
"…Well?" Goro finally prompted, making the other man flinch.
"Ah…the latest shipment made it to our mainland sellers without incident and we've picked up a few more clutches of eggs from our couriers last night," the nervous man replied. "The forgers should have the right paperwork ready for them to go out on a cargo vessel in three or four days. And in five days, our courier boats should start bringing in several cases of tax-free liquor and several poached larvitar from overseas."
"And there have been no more screw-ups?" Goro demanded with a growl.
"N-no," the other man gulped. "No lost or broken merchandise…"
"…This time," Goro almost sneered. "So what if we were able to retrieve most of the feebas, frillish, finneon, and basculin that escaped? There could be a few still unaccounted for out there, and that fumble with the eggs!" He shook his head savagely and adjusted his half-moon spectacles on his crooked nose. "That crate that they smashed contained the only eggs that were really worth anything! …But I suppose that they weren't the only ones at fault since there clearly wasn't enough straw packed in there to keep them safe."
The nervous man eagerly nodded in agreement, his eyes straying towards the gargoyle that seemed to be staring at him.
"Warn our dear employees that any further mistakes like that will result in more than a pay cut," Goro instructed. "Now, shoo! I have finances to wrangle. If there are any emergencies, I'll be at The Salty Pelipper tonight to have supper with my nephew, so be discreet."
"Yes, sir!" Goro's underling almost saluted and stumbled a bit in his haste to escape from the cramped office.
Goro rolled his eyes and reapplied himself to the pages of numbers in his books with a disgusted sigh.
It's harder and harder to find good help these days…
The eyes of the gargoyle statue briefly flashed blue.
Kushina peered into the chilled drawers in the pantry where her family stored their berries and frowned.
Damn, nothing more potent than a bluk berry…
"I have all the other ingredients ready," Akane chirped, and Kushina peered over her shoulder at her cousin.
Akane was wearing a simpler yukata with her sleeves tied back to keep them clean and out of the way. Over her traditional dress she wore an apron that was more frilly than practical. She had already laid out the basic ingredients for poffin batter on the kitchen countertop along with some mixing bowls, wooden spoons, and specialized baking pans.
"For the last time," Kushina sighed. "I really don't need your help. I know how to make poffins; I bake them as special treats all the time."
"But you admitted that you've never mixed up poffins to improve a pokémon's condition before," Akane replied with a cheery smile. "Since I blend up specialized poffins all the time, I'll help you!"
Kushina carefully dug around the berries, hoping to find more useful ones buried at the bottom of the drawer. "True, I've never baked up poffins to specifically increase beauty or cuteness, but I know a lot about berries and in theory I can—"
"To boost your feebas's beauty so that it can evolve, you need to mix poffins that have a dry flavor," Akane lectured. "So just pick some bluk berries to wash and chop up while I start mixing the batter."
"Isn't there anything better than bluk berries in the house?" Kushina complained. "They don't make very potent poffins and it would take weeks of steady poffin supplements to get that feebas—which is not mine, just in my care for the moment—to become beautiful enough to evolve. Don't we have any chilan berries?"
"No, those are so expensive!" Akane answered.
"Wiki berries?" Kushina tried.
"No, those have to be imported," Akane shrugged. "Too expensive."
Then I suppose pamtre berries would be out of the question, Kushina sighed. "Cornn berries?"
"Mmm…I think one of my friends gardens those," Akane said. "I'll have to ask her for some. But for this first batch we'll just use bluk berries. They're my favorite because they boost cuteness, too!"
Somehow I am not surprised. Kushina shook her head a bit and gathered up some bluk berries from the drawer to prepare. If I want this feebas to evolve in a reasonable amount of time with minimum poffin-baking I think I'm going to have to ask Iruka to swing by my house and pick a few things to transfer out to me. A wry grin tugged at the corner of her mouth. I never thought I'd be so glad that Naruto got that pamtre berry from Ino after that Contest he helped her with…
Uzu-chan paced around the outside of Kushina's old house out of boredom and curiosity. With the red-head busy baking special pastries for the sad little fish that she was taking care of the vaporeon had decided to do a little exploring. She wouldn't go far and she really wanted to see the place where her trainer had been born.
The Land of Whirlpool seemed rather grim and gloomy at first glance. The blue sky was blocked out by a blanket of gray clouds and the island they were on seemed more rocky than green. But Kushina's old house overlooked the ocean and the breeze blowing up and over the sea cliffs was salty and refreshing. It wasn't exactly a water pokémon's idea of paradise, but it was certainly a nice place to be.
I wonder why she never came back here, Uzu-chan thought as she picked her way through the tall grass that grew around the house. I'd love to swim in the ocean here. The currents and whirlpools sound tricky but exciting to navigate!
The near-constant sea breeze shifted slightly and another pokémon's scent was brought to her nose. Uzu-chan hesitated before carefully slinking towards the source of the scent. There was something oddly familiar yet completely unfamiliar and definitely masculine about it…
The tall grass cleared to reveal a roughly circular sandy depression, and standing in the center was another vaporeon. It was slightly larger than she was, and male. And when he turned around at the sound of her rustling aside some grass, she was struck breathless by his beauty.
His blue skin was sleek and unmarred by any faint scars. His cranial fins and neck frill were perfect, free of any small tears or tiny holes. He moved gracefully and his body seemed to have a slight sheen to it, and there was a little black bowtie around his neck and in front of his white neck frill.
:Hello,: he greeted. :I am Aquarius. Who might you be?:
:I-I'm Uzu-chan,: she stammered, still a bit awed by his magnificent appearance.
:Come closer,: he invited with a twitch of his ear-like fins. :I'd love to get a better look at you.:
Uzu-chan swallowed nervously and stepped out onto the open sandy ground. She felt a bit self-conscious as his dark eyes studied her form. Even with proper and prompt medical treatment, years of battling had left her with tiny scars and rips in her more fragile fins, and they seemed so much more noticeable when compared against Aquarius's pristine form.
:…Does your trainer not care about your appearance?: he asked with concern.
:Kushina takes very good care of me!: Uzu-chan frowned, immediately rising to her human's defense.
:I did not mean to offend you,: he instantly apologized. :I only asked because it does not seem like she takes any pains in enhancing the subtle beauty that I see in you.:
She started and then ducked her head bashfully as her face heated. :I'm not all that beautiful…:
:You are,: he insisted. :And you have the potential to be even more beautiful with the proper care and nutrition.:
She timidly pawed at the sandy ground and tried not to melt. Once, long ago when she'd been a simple eevee, she'd been horribly infatuated with Senkou. He had already been a jolteon by the time that she had hatched, and she had thought him to be amazing as he was so much older and more evolved than she was.
But while he had recently claimed to have always loved her, back then he'd only regarded her as some cute kid and spent his affections on anything female and more evolved than her. When she had finally evolved into a vaporeon, Senkou had finally taken real notice of her…but he'd been too late. She had come to see him as a foolish clown and was through waiting for him to flirt with her.
Aquarius was nothing like Senkou.
He radiated calm and poise in addition to his incredible beauty. He had evolved in the same way that she had and so they surely had much more in common. And even though they had just met and she knew little more than his name, she was certain that he would treat her better than Senkou ever had.
:Allow me to escort you and show you around,: he offered. :And perhaps a little later I might be able to beg a few extra sweet poffins for you from my mistress.:
Uzu-chan accepted with a smile.
He's so smooth and gentlemanly, she thought dreamily. Unlike a certain jolteon that I happen to know…
Kushina stalked out of Uzu Town just before noon in an irritable mood. Baking the necessary beauty-enhancing poffins had taken up most of the morning because Akane had kept trying to teach her how to do it "properly". And then before Kushina had left the house to feed the feebas and visit town for a few things, Akane caught sight of their two vaporeons enjoying each other's company and broke out into a squealing fit.
"You have a female vaporeon? Oh, she and Aquarius look so adorable together! If they fall in love they'll make the cutest baby eevees! Won't it be wonderful if our pokémon become mates? Then you'll have to visit more often because you can't get in the way of true love…"
The red-head shuddered and picked up the pace a little bit. After planting the seed of that nightmare in her brain, Akane had been thoroughly distracted by the feebas that Kushina had been put in charge of. She cooed and stroked the mottled fish and wondered why on earth that anyone would try and dye it as the only way to improve a feebas's appearance was to feed it dry-flavored poffins or pokéblocks.
Her quick little errands in town had been blessedly uneventful for the most part. No one really recognized her; they just gave her the mildly suspicious stare that locals always gave to strangers. But in the last shop that she'd visited she had had a near miss.
Arata Kurokawa, her old friend, had happened to be in the same store and had been using the payphone in the back. He still hadn't broken his habit of talking loudly when on the phone so she hadn't had to strain her ears to eavesdrop on him. He looked much older and more grown-up than she remembered, but personality wise he didn't seem to have changed. And whoever he'd been talking to, he'd been telling them about hearing that she was back in town.
I wonder how he found out, she pondered with a frown. My brothers never really talked with him. And there's no way that Aunt Asuka or Akane would speak to him since he's always been a bit of a pervert.
Thankfully he'd been too engrossed in his phone call to notice her, and even if he had she was pretty sure that he wouldn't recognize her. When she'd been a scruffy little tomboy he had always treated her like another boy, but now that she was more feminine in appearance she had little doubt that he'd hit on her. Since she hadn't felt like dealing with him, she'd hurriedly made her purchase and left.
As the terrain grew hilly, she did her best to let her irritation drain away. It was always best to approach the Sealed Shrine in a calm state of mind. And especially when she wasn't sure that Kyuumaru really recognized and trusted her.
"Good afternoon, Kyuumaru," she said when she reached the outer ring of stones around the shrine. "It's Kushina Uzumaki again, and I've brought you some food and other things." She bowed. "Please accept my gifts."
The ninetales was nowhere in sight, but Kushina assumed that he was watching her as she slowly approached the shrine structure. Kyuumaru had lived on the hill for a few centuries and was intimately familiar with every stunted tree, gnarled bush, grass clump, weed patch, root, fallen twig, crunchy leaf, and loose pebble. That made him a master of stealth on his home ground and for all she knew he was right behind her. She would only see him when he allowed her to see him.
She knelt by the front steps of the shrine and laid out some food, including a few leftover poffins from the batch that she'd baked. Then she backed off and took a seat on one of the stone half-spheres that formed the outer boundary of the shrine. And then she waited.
I'll wait for a half an hour and if he doesn't show himself I'll try again tomorrow…
It turned out that she only had to sit around for ten minutes. One moment she was staring at an exceptionally stunted and gnarled pine tree, and the next she caught sight of the ninetales sitting only three yards away from her and staring. She restrained a flinch and adjusted her position so that she was facing the fire fox straight on and waited for him to make a move.
Kyuumaru was an old ninetales—much older than the one-eyed Madara that had caused trouble in and around Konoha Town, but not nearly as old as the ninetales that Naruto had met in Oni no Kuni, the five-hundred-year-old Inari. She couldn't remember his exact age off-hand, but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred, give or take a few decades. And for the last century and a half he had lived on this hill all alone, which left him semi-feral and a bit unpredictable.
"I can't imagine what it must be like for you," she said to him as he stared at her. "You've outlived all your friends, even Ryuuza, and still you stay up here without any company to fulfill Mito-sama's last command. I probably would've gone completely crazy after only a year or two of living like you do."
The unkempt ninetales narrowed his ruby eyes at her but otherwise didn't move a muscle.
"I wonder if you ever think about leaving," Kushina continued. "That was all I dreamed about when I was a girl—getting away from this island and having adventures with pokémon of my own. I wanted to be as powerful and talented as Mito-sama was, and when people would make fun of my ambitions I only wanted to achieve them more…"
Kyuumaru flicked his ears and then slowly stood, fanning his nine tails out behind him.
"When was the last time that Akane spent any real time up here?" she wondered with a frown. "She used to keep you so well-brushed. So what if she goes out of town for Contests every other month or so? It shouldn't be too hard to stop by whenever she's home to give you a good grooming. Families of other clans might occasionally bring you gifts, but she's an Uzumaki and your well-being is our clan's responsibility!"
He blinked and then slowly crept over to where she was sitting. Kushina sat silent and still as he delicately sniffed at her knee. Whatever he found by listening to her talk and smelling her seemed to satisfy him and he sat down again by the base of the rock that she was sitting on and scanned his surroundings like he was ready to guard her.
"…Well." Kushina reached into her bag and pulled out a newly-purchased wire grooming brush and a length of red-and-white striped rope. "I probably won't be as good at this as Akane, but will you let me help you out?"
The ninetales glanced at her over his shoulder, gave the slightest nod, and then went back to keeping his sense alert for any trespassers.
"Okay." She carefully started picking loose the knot of the ratty old rope collar before she started using the brush. "Let's get started then…"
Eve watched as Vee pressed his face against the glass window to see the scenery whip by. There were inside of something that was called a train that moved incredibly fast. They sat in a room that could easily have accommodated eight or ten humans, but it only contained Naruto, the pink-haired girl, the black-haired boy, and Naruto's older relation.
Aside from herself and Vee, several other pokémon were loose. Bolt the pikachu sat up by the window with Vee, ready to catch the baby should he fall backwards. The aggressive one, now known as Grimm, sulked under the padded bench seat where the black-haired boy sat. The scarred one, now known as Nemo, was sniffing around the compartment. And then the pink-haired girl released something large and purple with a split tail from one of her spheres.
:Hmm…: The purple monster looked around curiously. :A lot of new faces… Bolt, is Shadow around?:
The pikachu flinched and glanced over his shoulder with a sad expression. :No, he's…gone.:
:Gone? You mean—: The unfamiliar creature's eyes flashed blue briefly, and then turned understanding. :I see. I'm sorry to hear that.: It's dark eyes drifted over the eevees and landed on Eve. :My, my…you're different.:
Eve wilted a little. :That's what everyone says.:
:There's nothing wrong with that,: the larger monster hurriedly assured her. :It's just that I've never met an eevee that looks quite like you.:
:Never?: Eve blinked. :I know that I was the only one like me where I lived, but…:
Vee chose that moment to notice that there was a pokémon in the compartment that he hadn't met yet and bounded down from the window to sit right in front of the newcomer.
:Friend!:
:Well, hello there,: the strange monster greeted. :You're a young one, aren't you? I wonder, will you grow up to be an espeon like me?:
:Espeon?: Nemo rubbed at his scarred eyebrow with a front paw. :I've never heard of such a thing.:
:Really?: The espeon tilted her head. :My family group taught me the seven paths an eevee can take when I was young. Weren't you taught that, too?:
Eve shook her head. :No…could you teach us?:
:Certainly,: the espeon agreed. :By the way, my name is Dawn.: She sat down and curled her partly-split tail around her feet. :The three element stones lead to the paths of water, fire, and lightning. Love, and the sun and moon lead to the paths of the mind and the darkness. The rock of moss and the rock of ice lead to the paths of summer greenery and winter cold. When an eevee sets foot to one of these paths, their form changes and there is no turning back.:
:No turning back?: Eve repeated with a shiver.
:It's nothing bad,: Dawn shrugged. :Sakura's love and the light of the sun made me evolve into an espeon. Depending on what your trainers do, they will help you down one of the paths and a new, more powerful form.:
:A more powerful form?: Grimm perked up, speaking for the first time.
Dawn nodded. :Yes. It's a good thing to evolve and grow. Without Sakura I would still be as small and brown as all of you.:
Vee tilted his head as he tried to make sense of what the older monsters were talking about. :Evolve? Grow?:
:That's right, little fellow,: the espeon smiled. :One day, when you're older and that everstone collar comes off, you'll grow and change into something new.:
The baby eevee seemed to ponder on this for a minute before giving up and bounding back to the window.
Something new? Eve stared down at the carpeted floor with a little frown. Since I'm different, will it be the same for me?
"I wonder what they talk about," Naruto remarked as he watched the pokémon seem to converse with each other.
"Who knows," Ken-Ichi shrugged, not looking away from his little book of Sudoku puzzles. "And so long as they get along and aren't conspiring against us, who cares?"
"I don't know, it could be interesting," Sakura shrugged. "There's no telling what we could learn if we could understand their language."
"They could talk about the things that all animals care about," Ken-Ichi said. "Territory, battle prowess, food, and mating."
"But pokémon are smarter than normal animals," Sakura argued.
"Eh, sometimes I see things that really make me wonder about that," the older Uzumaki replied.
"Like what?" Naruto asked curiously.
Ken-Ichi closed his puzzle book around his stub of a pencil. "Well…one time—"
The train car jolted and a flash of light burst from Naruto's ball belt. It resolved itself into Kitsune and the little black fox immediately started to pace around the compartment, her blue eyes examining every detail. Some of the eevees tried to speak to her, but she ignored them.
"What on earth is that?" Ken-Ichi frowned.
"A zorua," Naruto answered. "I call her Kitsune."
"A dark-type pokémon?" Ken-Ichi guessed.
"Yep," Naruto nodded. "Hey, Kitsune, come here and show him your illusion powers."
Kitsune completely ignored him and pressed experimentally against the compartment door. When it didn't give, she turned and hopped up to the window and watched the scenery flash by. After examining the window and seeing no way to open it, she finally looked over at the humans in the room.
"Not very friendly, is she?" Ken-Ichi remarked.
"Yeah," Naruto sighed. "But she isn't going to get any nicer if I just leave her in storage."
Ken-Ichi nodded. "True."
The zorua jumped from the windowsill to the bench seat, landing next to Naruto. She stared at him long and hard, and then gave Ken-Ichi, Sasuke, and Sakura the same staring treatment. And then Kitsune carefully crawling into Naruto's lap and looked up at him.
"Hey, are we going to be friends now?" Naruto asked with a grin and reached down to pat her head.
But before he could touch her, she hopped up into the air, tucked, rolled, glowed…
Sakura was straddling his lap with her hands lightly gripping his shoulders. A few strands of her short pink hair slipped to fall in front of her green eyes. A shy little smile touched her pink lips and she slowly leaned in towards his face.
Naruto sat frozen as his brain shorted out.
"Hey!" Sakura's voice squawked indignantly from behind her body. "What are you doing? Quit impersonating me!"
Another Sakura appeared over the Sakura-on-his-lap's shoulder and smacked her—
The illusion of the false Sakura broke apart and Kitsune bounced off his lap before the real Sakura could get her hands on the black fox. She landed on the floor and immediately stirred up the loose eevees before wrapping herself in a fresh eevee-glamour to blend in with them. Bolt jumped down to the floor to try and help sort things out, but the pack of eevees jostled so much that Dawn the espeon tripped into the pikachu and Bolt fired a few electrical sparks around the compartment, which led the humans to flail around and curse. In the brief spell of chaos Sasuke banged the compartment door enough to pop it open—
A brown eevee immediately bolted through the narrow opening with a giggle and the sound of a little silver bell.
"Kitsune!" Naruto howled and stumbled after her out into the train car hallway. "Come back here!"